Taking Their Chances with Lee Stevens
Through May 14th, free-swinging superstar Vladimir Guerrero has drawn 16 walks–but
10 of them (62.5%) were intentional. The highest ratio of intentional walks to
overall walks since statkeepers started differentiating between them in 1955 (minimum
400 AB):
Name Year IBB BB Ratio Manny Sanguillen 1971 13 19 .684 Joe Girardi 1990 11 17 .647 Doug Flynn 1980 14 22 .636 Garry Templeton 1986 21 35 .600 Garry Templeton 1984 23 39 .590
Which only proves that managers are way too fearful of eighth-place hitters; of the
five, only Sanguillen managed a .650 OPS or a .350 slugging average in that season.
Restricting our study to middle-of-the lineup hitters (minimum .450 SLG):
Name Year SLG IBB BB Ratio Roberto Clemente 1968 .482 27 51 .529 Andres Galarraga 1993 .602 12 24 .500 Andre Dawson 1990 .535 21 42 .500 Dave Parker 1985 .551 24 52 .462 Bill Robinson 1979 .504 11 24 .458
That Leaves Only 24 Holes to Fill
The Detroit Tigers have only 12 wins this season, last in baseball–but closer Todd
Jones has 10 saves, tied for third in the majors. The pitchers who have saved the
highest percentage of their team’s wins:
Team Year W L Closer Sv % of Team Wins Florida 1993 64 98 Bryan Harvey 45 70.3% Chicago (NL) 1993 84 78 Randy Myers 53 63.1% Chicago (AL) 1990 94 68 Bobby Thigpen 57 60.6% Montreal 1999 68 94 Ugueth Urbina 41 60.3% St. Louis 1995 62 81 Tom Henke 36 58.1%
Incidentally, the record for most saves on a 100-loss team is 26, by Bill Caudill for
the 1983 Mariners (60-102).
No, Tony Womack is Not on This List
Raul Mondesi is second in the AL with 35 runs scored, despite a thorougly unimpressive
.339 OBP. Mondesi has scored 35 times despite reaching base by hit or walk on only 56
occasions, a ratio of 0.625. The highest ratios of runs scored to times on base (hit
or walk) in history:
Player Year R H BB Ratio Pepper Martin 1935 121 161 33 0.624 Al Simmons 1930 152 211 39 0.608 Robin Yount 1980 121 179 26 0.590 Nap Lajoie 1900 95 152 10 0.586 Tommy Leach 1909 126 153 66 0.575 Joe DiMaggio 1936 132 206 24 0.574
What do they have in common? Extra-base power (four of the six players had 40 doubles
or more, and four had 10 triples or more), batting at the top of a very good lineup,
and efficient base-stealing. The six averaged 17 steals, with a combined 83% success
rate for the four players that have caught stealing data.
In 1999, Womack scored 111 runs on a combined 222 hits and walks; his ratio of exactly
0.5 ranks 183rd all-time. Why steal second when you can just double instead?
Rany Jazayerli, M.D., can be reached at ranyj@baseballprospectus.com.
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